Virtual Book Tour for Wanted: One Ghost by Loni Lynne

Welcome to my stop on Loni Lynne’s Virtual Book Tour for Wanted: One Ghost. Please make sure to leave a comment or question for Loni to let her know you stopped by. Loni will be awarding a $15 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn commenter, don’t forget to leave your email with your comment so Loni can notify you in case you win.   You can follow Loni’s tour here, the more often you comment the better your odds of winning.

The Challenges of Entering the Writing World As Technology and Trends Are in Flux by Loni Lynne

       When I first considered becoming an ‘author’ I was still under grand impressions of sending out 200-300 page manuscripts tied with string and boxed to end up in a pile (hopefully not a ‘slush’ pile) on a New York publishers desk. This, alas, was many, many eons ago—back before everyone could afford to have a personal computer in their home much less have any clue what the internet or email was all about.  All I knew was to be an author you must have an agent and only through them could you get your foot in the door of any of the big names in the book publishing industry. Now with the invention of the eBook and the ease of marketing to millions of people around the world, authors and publishers alike found it was just as easy to get a book or name out without all the ‘middle men’ of the industry. This would save everyone time and money in the long run.

       We are all aware that technology changes in a heartbeat. By the time a new cell phone hits the market—it’s outdated a few weeks to a few months later until the ‘next best thing’ comes along. With the inception of the eBook, I think the book industry was as skeptical about them as many of us were with the idea of having an ‘internet’. It wasn’t a real book or a real publishing company because it was all done over the computer. We didn’t have the ease to read an eBook at our disposal. You had to download it to your computer. How could we curl up with our computers at the end of the day?

       Enter the various portable devices to hold all of our downloadable eBooks. We could take it anywhere with us, access a book without waiting for a store to open and view any genre we wanted to read at our discretion. For a writer this meant greater access to the public, a new format to market books you’d previously published. For the publisher, greater demand, less middle man and more profit. With the cost being so reasonable to publish a book, Indie publishers popped up out of the shadows of the big, New York publishers. This also became a challenge for writers looking for someone who was legitimate and going to be there in the long run. Now many of the Indie publishers are proper nouns in the book industry and creating a stir in the market.

       Soon self-publishing became a trend. Why wait to have someone pick up your book to publish when you could do it yourself? Today, many self-published authors have hit the market full speed ahead and reached more readers than ever imagined. But the market is an ever changing tide, too. When I first started reading romance, historical romances were the thing; in the 90’s and on into the new millennium, vampires and werewolves. A new genre of YA came to entertain a younger, more accepting generation of readers wanting something geared more to their interests. Now the trend is going a step further into New Adult, a market to engage the late teens/early twenty year olds. Tomorrow could bring on a whole new genre. For some, they write for the market, others write what they love and hope for a market to accept them.

       With all this at our disposal the challenges are many. We are now our own marketers and promoters. We have the technology to publish ourselves but we find our time to write is taken over with focusing on getting out there. We have to learn the programs to utilize management of our publications keep track of what the market expects and hope for the best.  We are at times adrift on a vast, turbulent ocean struggling to reach the other side, making sure we are rowing in the direction we need to be.

       It can be done…stay focused, stay afloat and remember to keep your head above water to see what the next wave brings.  

Wanted: One Ghost

By Loni Lynne

Publisher: Crescent Moon Publishing

Release Date: May 31, 2013

Genre: Paranormal

Buy Links:  Amazon │B&N 

Add to Goodreads

Book Description:

Stuck in ghostly limbo for 238 years, James Addison can't move on to an afterlife.  After being falsely accused of treason and executed, fate's cursed him to remain an earth-bound specter until he meets a historian sent to research his past.

Distrustful of fate, Dr. April Branford wants to be taken seriously, but her unique ability to divine history by touching objects seriously compromises her credibility. Her latest assignment?  James Addison, a legendary colonial ladies' man with a shadowy past.  Without much to go on, she doesn't hold out much hope to discover the man behind the legend until the day she accidentally touches him and brings him back to life.

With the help of family and ghosts from James’s past, they unravel the truth. But after falling in love and with time running out, it’s hard for April to believe in fate and a future where forever is now.

Excerpt:

“Who are you?”April asked.

“You already know the answer, Dr. Branford. You saw me out at the mill the other day.”

Her eyes widened. “You’re…James Addison.”

She knew. But whether or not she accepted the knowledge was yet to be seen.

“Really, I did want to tell you the truth about me, but I couldn’t. Not knowing how you would react, I couldn’t take the chance of having you run away from me. I don’t want you to fear me, or what I am. You’re the only person who has ever been able to see me in this form. But more importantly, you’re the only person who’s cared.”

She stopped and turned. “I can see you. But you’re not real…I don’t know…”

“You make me feel real again,” he said softly.

She muttered profanities under her breath. “I don’t have time for ghosts. I’ve a case to solve. Go back to wherever it is you came from.” April waved him off.

“I can’t. This is where I am. Right here, right now. There is no place for me to go back to.” James knew this couldn’t be easy for her to understand. “Perhaps I could be of assistance to you, since you know who I am.”

“How do I know you really are James Addison?”

“You don’t,” he agreed. “But what would it take to prove to you I am?”

“Tell me where he is buried,” she challenged.

James shrugged. “Easy enough, but I would prefer to show you.” 

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Loni Lynne is a stay at home mom, domestic goddess, U.S. Navy Veteran and lover of all things vintage/shabby-chic/Victorian and antique. From china cups

and tea sets to lace doilies crocheted by hand (her grandmother made the best) she believes a touch of femininity never goes out of style.

Growing up all over the country she's been blessed with experiencing a good deal of culture and lifestyles. Much like her personality, she has eclectic tastes in what she likes to read and write. There is no 'one' genre in which

she settles for.

God and fate have been big influences in her life. Both have taken her to places she never thought she'd be, both in the physical sense and in the spiritual. She wrote brief stories and snippets of life as it happened to her in her youth, and encouraged by her teachers, continued to write. Blessed with a loving supportive family growing up, she was able to explore her options which at times have been put into use in her stories. The Navy--and fate, afforded her the opportunity to meet her Army, "Annapolis-native" husband and team up with him to parent two beautiful daughters.

Years later, her husband gave her the best birthday present ever--a laptop, a membership to Romance Writers of America and a goal to complete a manuscript for submission by her next birthday. She did it. A few years later she was blessed with one of those novels, Wanted: One Ghost, as her debut novel.

Believe in Fate

Links:

http://www.lonilynne.com

http://www.crescentmoonpress.com

https://twitter.com/#!/LoniLynne1

https://www.facebook.com/lonilynne

My Review

A revolutionary ghost, a woman with the gift of psychomety and America’s early history all play a part in Loni Lynne’s paranormal romance, Wanted: One Ghost.  Well developed characters, good dialogue and a century’s old mystery kept me turning the pages to discover what was going to happen next.  Excellent world building and good secondary characters really helped make this an enjoyable book.

Born with the gift of psychometry, Dr. April Branford wants to make a name for herself and be taken seriously by her colleagues.  Assigned to research and see if she could discover any additional details on James Addison, a colonial ladies man with a somewhat shady reputation, April is surprised to meet a “tour guide” with some interesting insight.  Especially since he’s dressed in period clothing and enjoys putting on a little dance for her.  She just wasn’t prepared to discover her “tour guide” is the actual ghost of James Addison, who’s been stuck near his historical home until his spirit can make the crossover.

Stuck near his home for almost 200 years, James Addison can’t figure out why he hasn’t been able to pass on to the next phase.  Meeting a cute woman who can actually see him after all of these years is completely unexpected.  Realizing she might be able to help him figure out why he hasn’t been able to move on is only natural.  Falling in love with her and actually getting a body is completely unexpected.

The scenes between April and James are well written and lots of fun.  Ms. Lynne does a pretty good job developing them both as individuals and as a couple.  Watching them fall in love, even though they are centuries apart in behavior and background, was fun and I enjoyed how Ms. Lynne brought them together.

The secondary characters, particularly April’s family – who all have some kind of psychic gift, are well done and contribute a lot to this story.  The other ghosts who make appearances are interesting too.  It’s clear Ms. Lynne did her research when it comes to the historical setting and world building and for me it’s always fun to revisit America’s revolutionary time period.

Will April and James be able to solve the centuries old mystery behind his death?  Will a ghost with a grudge make a future between April and James impossible?  And what happens when one of James current day descendants becomes involved?  You’ll have to read Wanted: One Ghost to find out.  I enjoyed it and look forward to reading more of Ms. Lynne’s work.

My rating:  4 out of Crowns

FTC Disclosure:  I received a complimentary copy of this book as a part of a book tour in exchange for a fair and honest review.  I did not receive any additional compensation for my opinion of the reading material provided.

Don't forget to leave a comment or question for Loni to let her know you stopped by. Loni will be awarding a $15 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn commenter, don’t forget to leave your email with your comment so Loni can notify you in case you win.   You can follow Loni’s tour here, the more often you comment the better your odds of winning.